I don't have ZBrushCore, in order to be certain someone would have to actually try it. But going purely by the documentation I would say.... kinda maybe.
The entire process hinges on the ability for you to dynamesh at high resolutions, if dynamesh works differently in zbrushcore and you can't get very dense meshes out of it then it's not going to work. However based on this video it looks like it works the same as full ZBrush and should be fine. ZBrushCore also has a 20m polygon limit, but that should be more than sufficient.
There are a few problems though,
1. It looks like there is only one Polish slider. That might be okay alright though depending on how it works, it just may mean you'll have less flexibility in control over your bevels. 2. Lack of plugins/scripts means you can't use Dynamesh Master, not a dealbreaker but not great for consistency. 3. Doesn't appear to be any way to decimate your mesh, the product is a little confusing on this point but based on the documentation it doesn't look like it can be done. Least no the same way as it is in regular ZBrush. Again, not really a dealbreaker as it doesn't appear that there is any polygon limit on exporting to OBJ so you could just export the mesh and decimate it in Blender (or any other program that can do it).
Basically without trying it myself I'd say it should be theoretically possible but less flexible and less convenient.
Also, 4r8 will have its own boolean toolkit so I for one am really looking forward to experimenting with that.
Personally I don't see much of a point to ZBC if people new to ZB are serious about it (full version) as it's way too limited and really defeats the entire ideology of the workflow, imo.
I dont think it's possible with smothing groups, but with UV seams. It is a little bit more work but it works quite good. The polish by features works with the polygroups and makes soften everything within one polygroup, but create hard edges at the borders. So before dynameshing just set your polygroups from your Uv's.
@Fansub I dont think its possible in default max and dont know any script. I only know it the other way create smoothing groups from uv shells with for example TexTools. If its possible i realy would love to know.
The way to create UV shells by smoothing groups in Max should be fairly straightforward. Do your selection(s) in edit poly by smoothing group (smoothing groups dropdown), open the UV editor, break the group off and relax. Boom! Instant UV island by smooth group. Rinse and repeat this process.
What do you mean by break group off? So if I for example autosmooth it by 30*, how can i break it to have uvs for that
Afaik 2017 has a feature which is called flatten by material id / smoothing groups but I havent been able to find more about it than someone mentioning it.
Break it as in use the "Break" function in the UV editor to separate your selection from the rest of the mesh, creating the UV seam(s). I am not certain what 2017 has as I am not on that version.
Thanks mate, thats what you mean. Wasnt quite sure.
As for max 2017, if you re in the edit uv window, theres an icon allowing you to flatten by smoothing groups. Ill edit this post and post a screenshot once I am able to
so is there any way I could make this look highpoly without it sharpening the edges? I intentionally used a low amount of geo because Imnot a fan of using tons of geo. So to any experienced user here, is it possible I could get good results? When I dynamesh it automatically sharpens the segments of the cylindrical holes for example. Is it possible to tell zbrush to dynamesh it by looking at smoothing groups? Or subdivide it by smoothing groups. It would be nice if zbrush could do one of these two. .
@Bumblebee It would be way easier to just add some support loops and subdivide that inside whatever package you modeled it in. The Boolean/Dynamesh workflow is best for parts of your mesh that would be too time consuming or tedious to try to sub-d model such as areas with complex curved surface intersections.
ahh okay, was getting ahead of myself. Would have been really neat if zbrush would be capable of a "double smooth" or smooth by smoothing groups feature.
For those of you finding this thread from the other direction, these are a few assets I slapped together with these methods:
I love this haha, if you don't like it, HERE'S PROOF YOU FOOL. Awesome tutorial dude. I have seen a few things about this on facebook recently and never had the chance to dig into it. After looking at your writeup and some of the videos people posted here, like the Division zbrush summit video, it's definitely a workflow I want to start working with. I'm gonna test this on an asset tonight. Thank you!
In Paul Gaboury's ZBrush Live - Did you Know That - Episode 3 (on Youtube), he shows how to polygroup a CAD model for use with ZRemesher to make it sculptable. Starts around 39:08. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzFZfJDQOOM
Is there a way to smooth normals in Zbrush before Dynameshing?
Not quite, I always recommend bringing in dense geo for curves. Think of dynamesh and polish as nothing but a minimum edge width pass. Large curved features should be defined in the boolean stage as much as possible.
That said, a good addition to this method that Harry Ridgeway informed me of, is to set polygroups by smoothing angle before dynameshing. Polygroups are preserved after dynameshing and you can polish-by-polygroup, which helps smooth out specific curved features if needed.
Not sure if it's mentioned here before but its a good idea to use smooth valley or smooth peak brushes for surfaces with convex or concave irregularities. It allows you to smooth based on convex or concave extrusion/intrusions. Perfect for those hard edges that you want gone.
Has anyone successfully managed to (zbrush-dynamesh-highpoly-CAD) object into a lowpoly using zremesher?
Yep, i did this last year for a realtime visualization. The CAD models just need to be exported with a high resolution so dynamesh creates round shapes out of cylinders etc..
Or do you want to create a lowpoly direclty with z-remesher? That won´t really work.
Hi. I've just started learning 3d modeling and I still strugle with topology when smoothing. I see this method eliminate my problem and it's much more appealing for me. But is it good to learn that for a beginer?
@stellary you should learn to model properly first. Learn the fundamentals. Learn about topology. Learn about surface shading. Whilst this is a viable option for certain assets, if it is the only method you know and can rely on then you will be severely limiting yourself.
This is just another 'string in your bow', as I said in the post above. If you want to limit your modeling ability, skillset, and knowledge, then that's up to you. There are many, many ways to model production assets. And just as many workflows. In the end it comes down to how many you want to become proficient in. If you find sub-d modeling(the backbone of 3d modeling for close to 2 decades) tedious, then I would say that maybe modeling isn't for you.
A 3d modeler should be passionate about modeling. Always pushing his limits, experimenting with new workflows/tools, constantly striving to become more efficient/proficient. If learning sub-d is something that you relish the idea of 'skipping' then you are missing out on a major element of modeling that directly relates to many other method of modeling.
Hey guys! I really like this workflow, and use it a lot, but sometimes Zbrush just blow my mind. Sometimes it's just dont want to decimate my model, and when it does, i have weird distortions on round surfaces, like here: http://i.imgur.com/oFApqwJ.png http://i.imgur.com/bcgoVwD.jpg So i wonder if there are any good alternatives for Decimation Master? I tried Meshlab (Quadric Edge Collapse Decimation filter) and it provided the best quality imho, but the funny thing is i get it crashed with every attempt to export mesh after decimation.
Just bought/installed/played around with it. -- VERY nice! It's a great fit for those of us trying to replicate the Proboolean + Dynamesh workflow in Maya.
So I've been using the technique for a while and havent had this problem before, any of you have any idea whats happening? The mesh is made in fusion 360 so could it be something to do with that do you think?
Any suggestions or ideas would be great to hear. Cheers
that workflow look really fast.. but i've got a really bas result when i try to do the same. afeter the dynamesh process i've lots of flat parts. how to solve that ?
@khaos if you plan ahead, you can definitely put more geo there. You can also use several of the polishing options in the Deformation drop-down (I typically use "polish by features" and "polish" - with the open circle for the latter. That will smooth out a lot of those kinds of areas. Masking those parts will also help keep the polish localized. Hope that helps!
Just tried something mega quick with this process. Even simple things like the pic below took around 10 mins (after crashes etc.) which is wayyyyyy quicker than modeling this in the traditional way. Needless to say, I am absolutely loving it and will be utilising this A LOT in up coming projects.
Replies
The entire process hinges on the ability for you to dynamesh at high resolutions, if dynamesh works differently in zbrushcore and you can't get very dense meshes out of it then it's not going to work. However based on this video it looks like it works the same as full ZBrush and should be fine. ZBrushCore also has a 20m polygon limit, but that should be more than sufficient.
There are a few problems though,
1. It looks like there is only one Polish slider. That might be okay alright though depending on how it works, it just may mean you'll have less flexibility in control over your bevels.
2. Lack of plugins/scripts means you can't use Dynamesh Master, not a dealbreaker but not great for consistency.
3. Doesn't appear to be any way to decimate your mesh, the product is a little confusing on this point but based on the documentation it doesn't look like it can be done. Least no the same way as it is in regular ZBrush. Again, not really a dealbreaker as it doesn't appear that there is any polygon limit on exporting to OBJ so you could just export the mesh and decimate it in Blender (or any other program that can do it).
Basically without trying it myself I'd say it should be theoretically possible but less flexible and less convenient.
Personally I don't see much of a point to ZBC if people new to ZB are serious about it (full version) as it's way too limited and really defeats the entire ideology of the workflow, imo.
You can create UV seams by smoothing groups in Max, right ? right ?!
Dunno if it's available in vanilla Max or with a script/plugin, but i'm pretty sure there something that does it.
If its possible i realy would love to know.
so i would need to uv unwrap it in max in order to tell zbrush to smooth it by smoothing groups?
Afaik 2017 has a feature which is called flatten by material id / smoothing groups but I havent been able to find more about it than someone mentioning it.
As for max 2017, if you re in the edit uv window, theres an icon allowing you to flatten by smoothing groups. Ill edit this post and post a screenshot once I am able to
It would be way easier to just add some support loops and subdivide that inside whatever package you modeled it in. The Boolean/Dynamesh workflow is best for parts of your mesh that would be too time consuming or tedious to try to sub-d model such as areas with complex curved surface intersections.
edit: yes, whenever i want to dynamesh by ctrl + drag it freezes. This problem didnt occure just 2-3 hours ago. What is going on?
Observation Number 2: It seems to work on other meshes that are not as complicated. This is the mesh im trying to dynamesh:
Awesome tutorial dude. I have seen a few things about this on facebook recently and never had the chance to dig into it. After looking at your writeup and some of the videos people posted here, like the Division zbrush summit video, it's definitely a workflow I want to start working with.
I'm gonna test this on an asset tonight.
Thank you!
That said, a good addition to this method that Harry Ridgeway informed me of, is to set polygroups by smoothing angle before dynameshing. Polygroups are preserved after dynameshing and you can polish-by-polygroup, which helps smooth out specific curved features if needed.
Have you update your workflow with the new Live Boolean on Zbrush?
But I'm open-minded... if someone has a ZB-centric workflow they think trumps my game, then they should tutorialize it so I can steal it from them
Or do you want to create a lowpoly direclty with z-remesher? That won´t really work.
A 3d modeler should be passionate about modeling. Always pushing his limits, experimenting with new workflows/tools, constantly striving to become more efficient/proficient. If learning sub-d is something that you relish the idea of 'skipping' then you are missing out on a major element of modeling that directly relates to many other method of modeling.
http://i.imgur.com/oFApqwJ.png
http://i.imgur.com/bcgoVwD.jpg
So i wonder if there are any good alternatives for Decimation Master? I tried Meshlab (Quadric Edge Collapse Decimation filter) and it provided the best quality imho, but the funny thing is i get it crashed with every attempt to export mesh after decimation.
Just bought/installed/played around with it. -- VERY nice! It's a great fit for those of us trying to replicate the Proboolean + Dynamesh workflow in Maya.
So I've been using the technique for a while and havent had this problem before, any of you have any idea whats happening? The mesh is made in fusion 360 so could it be something to do with that do you think?
Any suggestions or ideas would be great to hear. Cheers
Its from this thread
http://polycount.com/discussion/191195/kalashnikov-pl-14-prototype-fusion-360#latest
bad measurements, the wall between the mag cavity and the mag release button was waayy too thin. Now its got a couple of mm
sorry for the spam
how to solve that ?
Thank you so much for this.